


Partially Light

by aluminumoxynitride



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Fluff, Hanukkah, M/M, WTNVSS, and palmer/carlsberg family times, anyway have some dorks in love being dorks in love, but cecil has never cared all that much, cecil and abby are jewish, loads and loads of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-22
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-05-08 08:05:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5489756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aluminumoxynitride/pseuds/aluminumoxynitride
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My Secret Santa gift.  </p><p>Cecil and Carlos have been invited to Hanukkah dinner at the Carlsbergs'.  Cecil can't remember the last time he's celebrated this holiday and Carlos is confused as anything, but they're both determined to have the night go well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Partially Light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [somethingsalwayswrong](https://archiveofourown.org/users/somethingsalwayswrong/gifts).



> My Secret Santa [i-chew-on-pushpins](i-chew-on-pushpins.tumblr.com) requested Hanukkah-at-the-Carlsbergs fluff. Ask and oh, ye shall receive. This is like six times longer than I intended it to be. Whoops.
> 
> I hope everyone who celebrates Hanukkah had a very happy holiday. Sorry our festivities ended over a week ago, just as everyone else has started talking about the holidays in earnest :P And happy holidays later this week to everyone else!

“Should I be expecting anything...weird?” Carlos asked, realizing as he did so what a ridiculous question it was. It was absurd how he didn’t think twice anymore about going to a midnight Blood Sacrifice Ceremony, but was feeling kind of uneasy now.

Cecil shrugged, not taking his eyes off the road. “It’ll just be dinner, mostly. There’ll be the menorah lighting, and you won’t understand what they’re saying, but neither will I, and it’ll only take a couple minutes.”

“And the presents,” Carlos smiled. “I think we did well for Janice.”

His boyfriend reached over to hold his hand. “I think so, too.”

Carlos leaned back in his seat, drawing his thumb across the back of Cecil’s hand. “We can make it a nice evening, Ceec. If we want it to be.”

“I know what you’re trying to say,” Cecil sighed in resignation. “I’ll try to get along with Steve.” They turned onto the Carlsbergs’ street. “For Janice.”

Carlos knew that having the two brothers-in-law in the same room was usually a recipe for disaster. But lately Cecil had shown himself capable, on multiple occasions, of acting civilly around Steve. That was probably why the Carlsbergs had invited them this year. Carlos knew something had gone on between them during the Strex takeover, after he’d already become trapped in the desert otherworld, but he wasn’t too sure what it was. Well, he would just have to hope it would be enough to make dinner go smoothly.

He had only been to visit twice before this, but as the car pulled into the parking lot he recognized the Carlsbergs’ apartment immediately: it had the only two windows on the ground floor not glowing and sparkling with holiday lights. It almost wasn’t fair to Janice, he thought. Being deprived of Christmas. Having to grow up so apart like this. So _different._

Cecil parked, turned off the car, leaned over to kiss Carlos. The scientist blinked in surprise, then melted into him, cupping Cecil’s face.

They broke apart, Cecil smiling softly in a way that made Carlos wish they didn’t have somewhere to be right now. “What was that for?” he asked.

“I’m just glad you’re here,” said Cecil.

Carlos thought he understood. He had been back from the desert otherworld for five months already, but Cecil still seemed to be in disbelief, still seemed to worry he might disappear again at any moment. “I’m glad I’m here too,” he said.

Cecil gave him a swift kiss on the cheek in answer, and got out of the car. “I’ll text Abby that we’ve arrived,” he said, pulling out his phone.

As they walked across the parking lot, the front door to the building opened and a wheelchair zoomed out. “Uncle Cecil Uncle Carlos!!!”

Cecil grinned and rushed forward to meet her, stopping and kneeling halfway through the parking lot to hug his niece. Carlos caught up just in time to hear him say “It’s so good to see you, Janice. Happy Hanukkah.”

“Happy Hanukkah! I missed you so much--hi Uncle Carlos!”

Carlos gave her a hug as well, his heart going warm and melty. Out of everything he’d found in Night Vale, a niece he loved like she was his own was probably the most unexpected, but one of the most welcome. “Hey Janice, how have you been?”

“Janice, honey, let’s all go inside, it’s cold.” Carlos looked up to see Cecil’s sister Abby standing at the building’s entrance, holding the door open so they wouldn’t have to bleed onto the handle to get in. She smiled when she saw Carlos looking at her. “Hello Cecil, hello Carlos. It’s so nice to see you both.”

Cecil gestured towards the building. “Shall we?” Janice nodded, and Cecil began to push her across the parking lot.

“I’m good,” said Janice. “School’s fine. We got a project in Anti-Math last week. We have to find all the different combinations of three-digit numbers that add up to the codes on the shadow wraith prophecy. We have to make a poster. We don’t have to work in groups this time which is good ‘cause that’s super annoying.”

Carlos nodded in sympathy, remembering group projects of his youth.

“The hole in the multipurpose room that the Glow Cloud made last month is still there. It’s making the room really cold but all they’ve done about it is tape a sheet over it that says ‘no hole here, absolutely not, nuh-uh.’ And animals keep getting in. Roger Harlan said he saw a baby spider-wolf in the hallway but I think it must have been a squirrel.”

“Spider wolves are nocturnal,” said Cecil, “So it probably was a squirrel.”

“Unless Roger was in school at night,” Carlos suggested.

Janice shrugged. “Could be. Roger does weird stuff like that all the time.”

“He isn’t weird, Janice,” said Cecil. “He’s just...having a hard time right now.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t _like_ him,” Janice protested. “It was fun when you had him over for Thanksgiving dinner.”

Abby, now within earshot, suggested that Janice invite him over after school sometime soon.

“Okay, next week or something,” the girl replied as Cecil pushed her wheelchair inside the building. Carlos gave Abby a vaguely awkward wave. She was the sister of the most important person in Carlos’ life, but he barely knew her. Cecil wasn’t that close with her for...well, Carlos guessed it was Steve-related reasons.

They walked down the hallway together, chatting, until the smell of frying potatoes told Carlos that they were close to the right apartment. He didn’t know much about Hanukkah, but he did know there was something about potato pancakes. He was _really_ looking forward--Steve was a good cook.

Abby stopped to unlock a door covered in chipped paint and and a cheap “Happy Hanukkah!” banner that was almost desperate in its cheerfulness. “Honey, Cecil and Carlos are here!”

The sound of sizzling oil greeted them, and an apron-clad Steve Carlsberg turned around from the apartment’s tiny stove. “Hiya! So good to see you both. Happy Chanukah!” He pronounced it correctly, with that hard “ch” that sounded like clearing your throat. Carlos saw Cecil’s face twitch with irritation, and could practically hear the thought in his head-- _You’re not even_ Jewish _, Steve._

The Carlsbergs were kind of complicated. Carlos knew Cecil and Abby’s mother had been Jewish, but hadn’t done much to raise her children in that way. Cecil had never given it a second thought, and he’d always thought Abby had felt the same. But after she’d married Steve, the new family had started keeping more and more traditions, leading Cecil to complain often about how Steve was “indoctrinating” his sister and his niece.

Carlos had worked up the courage to ask Abby about it, once. She’d laughed and told him that she had always been curious about her heritage, but had never thought to do something about it until Steve had encouraged her to do so. He’d gotten into their new lifestyle with the same embarrassingly unbridled enthusiasm he had about, well, everything.

“Cecil just looks for whatever reason he can to look down on Steve,” Abby had said, in resignation. “It is what it is. Janice is happy, I’m happy, Steve is happy, and that’s all that matters.”

Now Carlos went to shake Steve’s hand, because someone ought to, and it certainly wasn’t going to be Cecil. And he liked Steve. The man was annoying, but no one could say he didn’t mean well. And he liked Carlos tremendously, which would ordinarily make Carlos feel awkward, but he knew it was just that Steve approved of how happy he made Cecil.

“Carlos! How are ya? I’m so glad you and Cecil could make it. Whoopsie, hang on.” He turned around and fussed with the stove for a minute as the frying pan started to bubble and hiss alarmingly.

“We’re glad to be here,” said Carlos, giving Cecil a look. He nodded and managed a smile that would actually seem friendly and welcoming if you squinted.

“Let me take your coats,” said Abby, holding out her hand. “Steve made doughnuts earlier, if you’d like one,” she added, gesturing to a basket piled high with sugar-frosted desserts. “Gluten free, of course.”

Carlos, never one to say no to free food, snatched one up. They were jelly-filled, which meant he had to nibble at it carefully to avoid disaster for his lab coat, but delicious. The jelly was...unusual, though. Was that _fish_ he tasted? Or maybe it was radishes. He didn’t even know if this was a Weird Night Vale Thing or a Weird Jewish Thing. “Doughnuts _and_ potato pancakes? That’s a lot of fried food.”

“That’s ‘cause it’s Hanukkah!” Janice chimed in. “It’s about the miracle of the oil.”

Ah, yes. That sounded...vaguely familiar.

Apparently his confusion showed on his face, because Janice continued. “When the Maccabees took the Jewish Temple back from the Greeks, they wanted to light the Menorah again. It was part of their services. But they only could find enough of their special oil to last for one day, and it took a long time to make more.”

“And the menorah stayed lit for eight days,” said Carlos. “I remember now.”

Steve chuckled as he flipped the last potato pancake--they were called _latkes_ or something, right?--off the stove and covered it with a layer of paper towels to soak up the grease. “That was great, honey! Looks like someone’s been paying attention in Hebrew School.”

Janice smiled at her stepfather, and pushed herself over to the counter to grab a donut herself. “So we eat food that’s been fried in oil! Like latkes and sufganiyot.” She flourished the donut--Carlos guessed that was what _sufganiyot_ were--took a huge bite. Jelly squirted out both ends to drip down her chin. Cecil laughed and tossed her a napkin.

“Alright, everybody!” Steve stripped off his oven mitts, beaming. “We’ll let the latkes cool off a little while we light, and then it’s dinner time!”

Janice zipped off to grab the matches off the kitchen counter, and brought them over to the window. Cecil dug into his pants pocket and got out a folded piece of black fabric. “Abby, I brought this, I’ll wear it if, uh, if you guys want me to.”

Abby smiled. “Still have that old thing, huh? You can wear a yarmulke if you’d like, Cecil, but please don’t feel obligated. It doesn’t matter to us.”

Cecil relaxed visibly as he slipped the yarmulke back into his pocket. Carlos smiled and hooked one arm around his waist, giving his boyfriend a kiss on the cheek. “I didn’t know you even owned one of those,” he said.

Cecil laid his head on Carlos’ shoulder. “It was just in the house when I was a kid. I’d wear it if we did anything Jewish, which was almost never. I had a bar mitzvah. I think.” His face clouded. Carlos knew Cecil never liked being reminded of how little he remembered about his childhood.

“If you didn’t, doesn’t that mean you aren’t really a man?” Carlos joked.

Janice rolled her eyes. “That’s like saying not having a Sweet Sixteen party means you never turn sixteen.”

“But didn’t that happen to to Emma Li from down the hall?” Abby pointed out. “She’s been fifteen for years.”

“Fine, but that isn’t _normal._ ” Janice said, folding her arms. “Let’s go, the latkes are gonna get cold.”

They all crowded around the table in front of their little living room window. Abby and Janice each had their own menorah. Abby’s was silver and delicate, a past anniversary present from Steve, and Janice’s was garishly painted ceramic that she’d made in Hebrew School at the age of about five. There were two candles set in each of them. Cecil explained in a whisper that one was the shamash, or helper candle, and the other was since it was the first day of Hanukkah. The next day they would light the shamash plus two, then plus three, and so on. When Carlos imagined a menorah he’d always pictured all nine candles alight, but this was apparently only true for the last night of the holiday.

Carlos felt very out of place as the Carlsbergs lit each shamash and used them to light the other candles, but his arm was still around Cecil’s waist and he could pull him closer as they watched the lights flicker and dance.

Cecil had been right. Carlos didn’t understand a word of the blessings--they were all in Hebrew. To his surprise Cecil joined in, reading transliterations haltingly off a laminated prayer card that had been lying on the table.

After they were done, Steve bustled off to the stove to finish getting things ready, while Abby led them all to the kitchen table. “I never thought we’d find Hanukkah paper goods in Night Vale,” she said as she gestured to the dreidel-patterned place settings. “Steve found them at the Ralph’s just yesterday. We'd been looking forever.”

“They look great,” said Carlos. He couldn’t even imagine ever being in a similar situation, unable to find Christmas plates and cups _anywhere_ in town.

Steve placed a heaping platter of latkes on the table, followed by green beans and rice. “Here we are! Abby, hon, could you get the sour cream and applesauce?”

“Applesauce?” Carlos asked as Abby went to the fridge.

“For the latkes,” Abby explained.

“For the _latkes?_ ”

Cecil laughed. “It’s the best, trust us.”

“I’m more of a sour cream person myself,” Steve chuckled, and Carlos immediately understood Cecil’s preference.

Carlos let him spoon applesauce onto his plate and serve him a couple latkes. He cut into one of them, dipped it in the applesauce, and stared at it suspiciously.

After a couple seconds Cecil leaned over and ate the bite off his fork. “You were taking too long,” he said, as Carlos swatted his shoulder in mock irritation. “It’s good, just try it.”

Carlos prepared another piece. Janice had already demolished one latke and was working through another. “These are really good, Dad,” she mumbled through a full mouth. Carlos sighed and took a tiny bite.

“They _are_ really good,” he said, surprised at how much he liked it.

“Told you,” said Cecil, stealing another bite off his plate.

After dinner, they all cleared the table and Steve set out the donuts. Carlos was feeling stuffed, but couldn’t help eating one. Or two.

As they chatted Abby mentioned that they would be giving gifts soon, and at the first opportunity Cecil slipped away to the coat closet to grab their gift for Janice. After a few seconds’ deliberation Carlos decided to follow him. They hadn’t had a minute to themselves since they’d arrived.

Cecil was standing in the middle of the hallway, fumbling in his coat pocket. Carlos tapped him on the shoulder. He spun, then smiled. “Hi, Carlos.”

“Hey, yourself. Having a good time?”

Cecil nodded. “I didn’t think I would, but yes. It’s always good to see Janice and Abby. And the food’s been, well, I can’t complain.”

Carlos smiled. “I can tell you’ve liked the food. You’ve got a little powdered sugar on your face.”

“So have you,” Cecil laughed, then blushed as Carlos stepped closer and kissed the corner of his mouth, then the other one. “I think you got it.”

“Better make sure,” Carlos said, smiling mischievously as he kissed Cecil again. 

Cecil twined fingers in Carlos’ hair and sighed, pulling Carlos forward so he was lightly pressing his boyfriend against the wall. Cecil was so warm, and Carlos could feel him smiling against his mouth--

Something smacked Carlos on the head. They broke apart and twisted around to see Abby holding a paper plate, smirking. “Get a room, boys.”

Carlos felt his face turning bright red. “Uh, sorry.”

“Yeah, yeah. We’re about to unwrap presents, get in there.”

Cecil giggled and gave Carlos one last kiss on the nose as he grabbed a small wrapped box from his coat pocket and led him to the living room. Janice raised her eyebrows at the both of them, the look on her face saying _I know full well what you were doing in there._ Cecil stuck his tongue out at her and sat down on the couch.

Steve and Abby gave their daughter a boxed set of a popular young adult fantasy series. Carlos saw Cecil’s look of disapproval as Janice exclaimed over the books, and gave him a warning glare. It worked--by the time it was time for Carlos and Cecil to give their gift, Cecil was all smiles again.

“Here you go, sweetie,” said Cecil, handing the box over. Janice neatly undid the wrapping paper to find a charm bracelet. Carlos grinned as he saw Janice’s face light up. He really had thought they’d done well. They’d spent over an hour picking out charms--a J for Janice, the Girl Scout emblem, a detailed Glow Cloud, flowers carved out of bloodstone, a tiny rhinestoned microphone so the Secret Police could better listen in on her conversations. Anger flashed across Steve’s face when he saw the microphone, but Abby put a hand on his knee and gave him the same sort of look Carlos had given Cecil a couple minutes before, and the moment passed. Carlos hadn’t been too sure about the microphone either, but Cecil had insisted, and the rhinestones _were_ cute.

Janice leaned over to hug her uncles, thanking them over and over, and Carlos felt his heart melt once again. “Thank you so much it’s amazing! I’m sorry I don’t have your presents yet. We’re working on a big project in art class and it’s supposed to be ready for Christmas but that’s not for a couple of weeks. So I’m not done with it yet. I’ll get it to you guys as soon as I can.”

Cecil smiled. “Don’t worry about it.”

They chatted for a little while longer, watching the lights burn low, while Janice admired her bracelet and Steve fed them yet more donuts. Finally Abby pointed out that it was getting late, and all four adults had work the next day.

Steve shook Carlos’ hand, and held his arm out to Cecil, grinning, until the radio host rolled his eyes and took it.

“Good to see ya!” Steve said cheerfully. “Come back soon, now!”

“Yeah, yeah, all right,” Cecil muttered.

Abby hugged both of them tightly. “Keep an eye on my brother,” she told Carlos. “Make sure he doesn’t get too wrapped up with work.”

“Thank you so much for coming!” Janice said. “Happy Hanukkah!”

Cecil smiled as he knelt to hug her. “Happy Hanukkah, Janice.”

As they walked back out to the car, Cecil took Carlos’ hand and leaned against his side. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

Carlos nodded. “I had a really good time.” Seeing Cecil get along with his family like this...it was nice. And the way the Carlsbergs treated Carlos like he was family too. Carlos really liked that.

“I hope they invite us back again next year,” said Cecil, getting into the car.

“I do too,” said Carlos.

Cecil started the car, and Carlos laid his hand on his knee. It was only about 8pm, but he was exhausted. He couldn’t wait to get home and throw on pajamas and watch TV.

“Look,” said Cecil, gesturing behind them. Carlos turned and saw the apartment building, the windows alight with string lights and snowflakes and holly. Almost all of them. The menorah candles were still glowing in the Carlsbergs’ apartment, a counterpoint to the explosion of festivity in every other window, four wavering pinpoints of light in the dark.

“What is it?” Carlos asked.

Cecil smiled. “The menorah lights. They’re beautiful.”

Carlos looked once again at the window--mostly void, partially light--and smiled back.

“Yes,” he said. “They are.”


End file.
